Our Fitness Blog

Don't Fall for it

Many restaurants have made big bucks off of people looking to lose weight. They may label their food as healthy or insinuate that it is healthy. They like to use all the fashionable weight loss buzzwords such as low in carbs, low in fat or low in calories. These foods have to be so much better for us, right? It says right there that it contains less of something unhealthy and that it is grilled and not fried. This type of reasoning allows us to assume that if we eat these offerings then we are not cheating on our diet, and we will be all good. However, are the healthy menus that these restaurants are busy selling us really healthy? Here are just a few of the food traps that many of us may fall victim to.

Fancy buzzwords. Low carb, low fat and low calorie labels can be confusing to most. I mean, how low is low? You never really know, and you have to wonder, if it is low in carbs is it still packed with fat and calories or vice versa? It could be that you are trading one of these to find that you have doubled or tripled your intake of the other. So, never allow yourself to be pulled in by the word low in front of fat, calories or carbs because it is probably the restaurants way of tricking you into thinking you are eating healthier when you truly are not.

Small or snack sized servings. We think that because we did not supersize our food or only opted to eat appetizers that we are faithfully sticking to our diet and staying on the correct path of our weight loss journey. However, when you consider the portion sizes most restaurants offer, you could easily see where this type of thinking can lead to failure. Mostly everything you order from a restaurant is more than one portion size and can contain a day's worth of fat and calories, and small and snack sizes are no different. They can pack a mean punch to your fat and caloric intake. So, the next time you are out and think that just because you ordered something labeled a small or snack size you are staying on the proper path, think again. Remember that quick bite to eat can hinder your weight loss goals.

Beware of toppings and extras. Many restaurants will offer something healthy, but then they will turn it around by giving you the chance to top it off with stuff that is unhealthy. You may fool yourself into thinking I am eating a healthy salad, but when you cover it in bacon, cheese and a river of dressing, it becomes not so healthy. You just added more fat, calories and sodium to your meal just by piling on the extras. When you do happen to find a healthy option at a restaurant try to steer clear of these tempting extras and keep it simple because you are really not eating healthy if it is piled high with tempting extras.

Labeling menu items as all natural. Natural food should be healthy for us. It is a normal assumption to make that if something is labeled as all natural then it has to be good for you. However, most of us confuse the term natural with low fat, low carbs or low calories, which can also be misleading. However, as we will soon find out as our waistlines keep expanding, all natural food does not mean that we are eating foods that are low in fat, calories and carbs. It is just another ploy used by restaurants to fool us into thinking that we are eating right when we are actually eating wrong.

It can be hard knowing what we are actually putting into our bodies when we eat out, and as the holiday season approaches, more and more of us will find ourselves sitting down to a dinner that we did not have time to prepare at home. We need to learn not to get caught up in the flashy words restaurants use to sell their menu and look a little deeper into what we are truly allowing in our bodies.